Was an avid comics collector growing up.... but never really had a chance to collect any IDW Transformer comics since the TF brand transferred from DW. So with that in mind...I have no clue of to which series's are worth my $$ or my time. Does anyone have any information on what I should focus on? And are there any volumes that have multiple books in them as that might be a way to save $$?

Thanks for sharing.

-ExtremeGz

 

You should pick up Last Stand of the Wreckers along with the Chaos Theory as well as the ongoing MTMTE series. Those are good starts.

 

Well the holy trinity of IDW writing material are the Last Stand of The Wreckers, Chaos Theory two parter and More Than Meets The Eye.

So with that in mind get the "Last Stand of The Wreckers" HARDCOVER edition as it has not only the whole mini series but a lot of short stories and artwork and character profiles and tons of cool extra stuff.

Chaos Theory 2 parter you can get in the same titled "Chaos Theory" trade which also has a rather fun story of Rodimus in space.

More Than Meets the Eye is the current ongoing series that has around 5 trades and counting.

That's what I consider the best of IDW. If the universe in general interest you then go ahead and read the rest of it. That's how I got into IDW.

 

I definitely agree with the above recommendations. Very much the best IDW Transformers has to offer.

If you want to read everything, the eight "IDW Collection" hardcover volumes are the way to go, with 16-17 issues in each. Alternatively, ComiXology is a quick 'n' easy way of picking stuff up if you're okay with digital comics.

 

Also if you do end up wanting to read it all Ady has an amazing reading order thread in the stickies: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...03136-idw-transformers-g1-reading-orders.html

 

Yeah I would definitely give MTMTE a hearty recommendation.
Also does anyone know if RiD is any good? I'm probably going to pick it up when Dark Cybertron beings but I want to know if the past stuff is worth looking into.

 

Everything

 

You know, maybe this should be a sticky, it seems almost every week or so someone comes in asking what stuff to get from IDW, and we all give the same answers  

 

It's pretty good, though not as fantastic as MTMTE. Starscream and Wheeljack are cool in it, and I guess it'd be helpful if you wanna get into Dark Cybertron.

 

Depends on what you like... I know a lot of people enjoy RID, and it would be decent by the standards we were used to a few years ago... but I find it doesn't keep pace with MTMTE.

zmog

 

MTMTE and LSOTW. That is all.

 

I whole heartedly agree with many of the above posters recommendations, just stick to anything wrote or co-wrote by James Roberts as it is usually perfect or pretty close to whether it be mtmte, lsotw, the annual his spotlights or ongoings #22 and #23.

RID is ok but seems a bit slow and doesn't feel like great value for money to me. I you want to just cherry pick the best bits just get issue #17 and the annual and transformers wiki the rest.

As good as the comics are at the moment I would also recommend checking out furmans early idw stuff for some pretty solid and brilliant world building. Volumes like infiltration, early spotlights, stormbringer, escalation and devestation are far from perfect but really build a fascinating portrayal of the autobot/decepticon war.

Stuff like megatron origin, drift mini series and ironhide mini series are a bit average but are interesting and feed into the current comics

 

Why do peole constantly forget to mention Chaos theory when recommending MTMTE?

Chaos Theory is ESSENTIAL reading for MTMTE othervise the Shadowplay arc isn't nearly as interesting or as engaging.

To be fair a long time ago I tried reading Furman's run and I was quite bored half way though escalation and never picked it up until years later. Furman's run to me is best read if you get hooked on the universe as a whole.

 

I can completely understand this reaction as it took a while to get going and ended on a low with maximum dinobots and that arcee nonsense but we did get good takes on nightbeat, hardhead, doubledealer, sixshot and Nova prime

 

I agree with most of this. The minis you mention (Megtron, Drift) are not fantastic, but they do feed into the current continuity for sure.

On the whole, I don't feel like Furman's run is essential, though if you weren't worried about the larger continuity, cherry picking bits an pieces would be good. There are some decent Spotlights, and Infiltration on its own is a nice mood-setter for the G1-redux context of IDW Transformers.

I consider the Chaos Theory 2-parter to be essential reading, though sometimes it's hard to recommend just 2 issues isolated from the rest of their run... but then, the internet provides, so to speak.  

I don't think anybody has mentioned this yet, but I also think that Spotlight: Kup and the All Hail Megatron short coda story "Everything in its Place" are both pretty important things to read going into Last Stand of the Wreckers and MTMTE, particularly as characterizations of Kup and Prowl.

I forget what issue of AHM that Prowl story is in. Again, it might be worth tracking them down digitally.

zmog

 

I don't see how that's a problem to be honest. I read those two out of context because I saw on tfwiki that Roberts wrote them and they can be read as stand alone very well. It doesn't really require any knowledge of the contiuity and you can pretty much peace together what's going on without having to read any of the previous issue.

And it's even better if you read the whole trade because while the Rodimus story in space is kinda boring it's not down right bad like International incident or any of the previous tripe Costa put out and you get a decent intro to CT.

Oh completely forgot about these. Yeah for LSOTW you totally need to check out those two. It's not much but you get some of the stuff that happens in it better plus they are really good stories.

But it's not worth getting whole trades for it so just digitaly getting Spotlight Kup and All Hail Megatron #15 should be enough.

 

That's true... the rest of that trade isn't awful, but I think my point was that it's just hard to track down two individual issues on their own, if you're not in the market to buy a whole trade for two issues.

zmog

 

OH definately but as the OP stated he's interested in trades so gettin Chaos Theory trade isn't really that bad because like I said you get three decent comics and two amazing ones.

But getting a whole trade of All Hail Megatron just for that one issue isn't really worth is because you get a bunch of stuff that doesn't work as stand alone.

Same with the Spotlights because you also get Soundwave and Galvatron that don't work without reading Stormbringer and Optimus Prime and Ramjet that don't work without reading Escalation.

So Kup and Prowl issues are better suited to be tracked down alone.

 

The Prowl Spotlight or the AHM Coda story? The Prowl Spotlight was not so bad taken on its own, but it still irks me in that it was basically a retcon for Prowl's uncharacteristic behaviour in the first issue of Costa's run.

That Ramjet Spotlight isn't really that firmly entrenched in the lore of Escalation... it works pretty well on its own (or doesn't require much filling in of blanks). I just don't think it's actually a very good story, and it's an outrageous fail in terms of portraying Ramjet as a character.

Certainly skippable, anyway.

zmog

 

According to SOME...but not all of us!!

I would recommend "Infiltration" and the Furman early stories for IDW. They're flawed, but there's also lots to enjoy about them.